Once such evidence is exchanged, each country would prosecute a war crime, and if the other country concludes that the proceedings have been conducted in line with its own legislation, it discontinues the proceedings and considers them completed, Croatian Justice Minister Ana Lovrin said.
She went on to say that Croatia and Serbia would not refer trials to one another, but evidence. "After a country establishes that proceedings have been conducted in the same way they would have been conducted if they had been held in the country of origin, it decides whether it will close the case," the minister said.
The Serbian minister said that the agreement technically defined cooperation between the two prosecutor's offices, the referral of cases and the introduction of evidence.
"We have reached agreement, the agreement is good and it will regulate this matter," Stojkovic said, adding that his ministry had given approval and that the agreement could be signed by the end of the year.
The two countries agreed on such cooperation because they both have constitutional provisions banning the extradition of their nationals to other countries.
Asked about the proposal by the chief prosecutor of the Hague war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, that Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia be requested to annul such provisions in their constitutions, Lovrin said they had found a way to cooperate within those provisions with the aim of bringing war criminals to justice.
In the technical sense, the new agreement would amend the existing agreement on cooperation between the two countries' state prosecutor's offices.
The two ministers also discussed direct cooperation in civil matters and more expedient transfers of convicted persons.